Approximation Algorithms for Capacitated Set Cover

Ravishankar Krishnaswamy(joint work with Nikhil Bansal and Barna Saha)

Approximating Set Cover

Given m sets, n elementsFind minimum cost collection of sets

to cover all elements

Greedy: ln n approximation[Feige]: ln n hardness of approximation

Not the end of story

Several set systems (X,S) admit much better approximations

e.g. geometric covering, totally unimodular systems,small hereditary discrepancy, small VC-dimension, etc.

Can solve these either exactly or upto O(1) factorsWhat about the capacitated versions?

Capacitated Set Cover

Instance: Sets and ElementsSets have capacities and costsElements have demands

Find minimum cost collection of setstotal capacity of sets covering an element is at least its demand

eg: capacitated network design, flowtime, and many more applications

Capacitated Set Cover

In general, O(log n)-approximation is known

Meta: Is it only the structure of the set system that determines the approximability?

Can we obtain improved approximations for special cases like TU matrices?

Initiated by Chakrabarty, Grant, and Konemann [2010]

Results of Chakrabarty et al.

Capacitated Set CoverIntegrality Gap

Multi Cover Integrality Gap

Priority CoverIntegrality Gap

[CGK] conjectureCSC has same approximability as 0-1 problem

MC is often as easy as 0/1 Problem

Priority Cover Problem

Input: Sets (costs) and Elementsboth have prioritiesMin cost collection of sets to “cover” elements

element is only covered by sets of higher priority

A

[CGK]: there are log cmax priorities

Priority Covering

Good News: remains a 0-1 problemBad News: alters the structure of matrix

anding with triangular matrix of 1se.g. original matrix could be totally unimodular

but not any more…

How well can we approximate this problem?Theorem: O(α log2 k) approximation where α is integrality gap of 0/1 problem

Corollary: O(α log log2 C) approximation for CSCwhere α is integrality gap of 0/1 problem

k: no. of priorities

Roadmap

IntroductionProblem DefinitionPriority Covering ProblemsApproximating PCPsLower BoundsConclusion

Our Rounding Algorithm

Very simple: divide and conquerfor simplicity, assume the original matrix is TU

Fact 1: Each subdivision is also TUFact 2: There are log k subdivisions in total

determinant of any submatrix is 0,1, -1

e

f

S T

What we have done…

Each set appears in log k copiesEach elements fractionally covered to extent 1/ log k in some copy

Each copy is TU and therefore integral polytopeGives O(log2 k) approximation for TU matricesAlso works if hereditary int. gap is α

Hereditary Systems?

Given set system (X,S)if all subsystems (X’, S’) have int. gap αthen hereditary int. gap is αTU systems,geometric instances, bounded hereditary discrepancy, etc.steiner tree cut system

Roadmap

IntroductionProblem DefinitionPriority Covering ProblemsApproximating PCPs: O(log2 k)

Sample ApplicationLower BoundsConclusion

Flow Time Scheduling

Jobs with different processing times and weights arrive over time

Schedule them on single processorminimize “weighted flow time” of the jobscan preempt jobs

Relaxation in [BP10]

t1 t2

(r1,w1,p1) (r2,w2,p2) (r3,w3,p3)

Structure of 0/1 Set System

Elements are intervalsSets are also intervals, but must overlap

t1 t2

Can encode it as priority line cover problem!

We need to solve priority version of this problem

our theorem

Bansal and Pruhs used powerful result about weighted geometric set covering [Varadarajan] to get O(log k) approximation

This gives very simple O(log2 k)

Roadmap

IntroductionProblem DefinitionPriority Covering ProblemsApproximating PCPs: O(log2 k)

Sample Application: FlowtimeLower BoundsConclusion

Lower Bounds

O(log2 k) loss in approximating PSC Is it necessary?

Don’t know, but log k loss is unavoidable

There exist set systems with hereditary int. gap of 2

but the priority version has log k gap

use connections to recent lower bounds of ϵ-net in geometric graphs of low dimension

In particular, 1/ϵ log 1/ϵ bound for 2-D Rectangle Covers[Pach Tardos 10]

Lower Bound Reduction

2-Dimension RC = Priority P2-Dimension RC with = Prectangles fixed at X-axis(just Priority Line Cover in disguise)

integrality gap of 2 is known

To Conclude…Capacitated Set Cover

Priority Covering

Approximating PCPs: O(α log2 k)If 0/1 problem has O(α) hereditary int. gap.e.g., if 0/1 problem has O(α) her. disc.

Lower Bounds: Ω(α log k)Can we close this gap?

Thanks!

LP relaxation

Naïve: bad Integrality Gap of Knapsack

high capacity set, high costelement of low demand

LP cheats by picking this set to a very tiny extentFix: add “Knapsack Cover” inequalities!